'You Can't Make A Person Befriend You': Kelly Ripa Spills All About Backstage Feud With Regis Philbin
Sept. 27 2022, Published 2:00 p.m. ET
Former talk show host Kelly Ripa is sharing new details on her decade spent co-hosting alongside the late Regis Philbin, RadarOnline has learned.
Ripa, 51, has opened up about what life was truly like working on ABC’s Live! with Regis and Kelly, including inequalities she faced as a newcomer and a woman, like having to earn an office space.
“I don’t want to feel like I’m slamming anyone or that I’m being disrespectful,” said Ripa, “But I also want people to know it was not a cakewalk.”
Ripa spoke with People magazine earlier this week and shared details on what she referred to as a ‘complicated’ relationship with longstanding co-host, Regis.
“It took years to earn my place there and earn things that are routinely given to the men I worked with — including an office and a place to put my computer,” Kelly remarked on her treatment while co-hosting.
Ripa joined the set in 2001 as Kathy Lee Gifford’s replacement. She remained a co-host alongside Regis until his own departure from the show in 2011, where she continued to co-host with ex-NFL star Michael Strahan. Regis passed away in 2020 at age 88.
Of the several behind-the-scenes stories she told People, Ripa addressed head-on the 21-year-old rumor that Regis did not want Ripa as his co-host in the wake of Gifford’s leaving.
“I understand that probably he didn’t want a co-host,” Ripa reflected on Regis’s most-likely preferred choice, “but the network wanted me to be the co-host and I didn’t think I should pass up that opportunity. I don’t think it was fair to him. But it was also not fair to me.”
Upon accepting her new gig, Ripa shared that she received telling advice from her agent regarding her new line of work that made her feel uneasy about the road ahead, while also setting a tone for what she would experience as a co-host.
“They want you to know who your boss is,” recalled Ripa on a conversation she had with her agent after accepting the co-host role.
“It was very ominous, and it did not feel good,” she shared on her feelings at the time of the conversation.
It wouldn’t take long before Kelly’s not-so-good feelings about her new line of work would come to fruition. She admitted that her very first day on set was met with irritation from Regis.
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Kelly shared she was told to not bring an ‘entourage’ with her but she did bring a hairstylist and makeup artist, something that is normal and standard in the industry.
“I came with hair and makeup,” Kelly shared, giving context to her first day decision, “It was not an unusual thing for people on a television show to show up with.”
Upon meeting her new co-host, alongside the show’s producer, Michael Gelman, Kelly stated that Regis greeted her, exclaiming, “Uh-oh, Gelman, it’s got an entourage.”
Kelly shared that the deadpan comment “felt horrible.” “He was probably trying to be funny, but at the same time it felt like a pile-on,” shared Kelly on the first-day remark.
Three years before his death, Regis spoke to Larry King on his departure from his decades-long post, and that Kelly was “very offended” when he announced he was stepping away from the talk show.
“She thought I was leaving because of her. I was leaving because I was getting older and it was not right for me anymore,” Regis told King in 2017. He also claimed the show had not reached out to him after he left.
Kelly denied the claims adding, “The show had reached out many times. It makes me sad but it’s not something I will ever understand. I was steadfast in my attempt at communication. You can’t make a person befriend you.”
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